Catster.com - Is Your Cat Surfing the Web, Too?

Just when I thought I was the only one in my family using the internet, I found out about Andretti.

Did you know there is a website, much like a myspace or friendster for your cat? Did you know your cat can have online friends? That he can join groups? Exchange mail? You didn't? Well, it was news to me too.

Catster.com is a forum for cats, obviously. You, the visitor, can browse among about 113,000 kitty profiles. Each cat has a page; each cat has a bio, a history, and a photo gallery. Each cat has friends. And the forum has fewer bugs than myspace and is easier to use.

I signed up all my current cats and a couple of felines who graced the earth in the past, but moved on to happier hunting grounds. Yes, there is a place for them too. I filled out a simple form with breed, color, weight, date of birth, personality traits, and adoption specifics. There is even a space for how many of his nine lives kitty has left to live. I uploaded some pictures and saved the info and thought I was done. But that was just the beginning.

Over the next few days, friend requests poured in from all over the world. Feline beauties of all breeds and distinctions wanted to make my little alley cats' acquaintance. There were cats with pedigrees, with ribbons, sleeping on soft, satin pillows, but there were also outdoorsy ones, who might exchange hunting stories with my Andretti or horror stories about raccoons and coyotes with TchuTchu, the dramatic.

Of course, my cats received more friend requests in a few days than I get in a month on myspace. It's disheartening. Andretti doesn't seem to mind. He knows he's a star. For a little orange scrap of fur, salvaged from a broken down Chevy Impala, he has pretty good self-esteem. A recent invitation to join the 'Brilliant Orange Cats Unite' group hasn't made him any more modest. Alas! We humans bear the burden of humility.